Right now, she could hardly do more than draw a breath.
She didn’t know how long she knelt in the icy water of the too-still pool, light spilling from her fingers like the threads of an unraveled tapestry.
A whisper brushed against her mind. A shadow curled down a woven bridge.“Are you all right,nio?”
Mariah dragged in a breath. She forced her eyes open, blinking against the harsh sunlight. Reality settled around her: the towering Everheim Mountains, the block ofaberrantat her back, the four figures watching her on the banks of the pool.
She found a gaze of crushing tanzanite, and a piece of her settled.“Yes. I think so.”
That’s when it struck her.
She’d just spoken to him. Down their bond.
And before, she’d heardalltheir voices. Not just feelings or emotions.Words.
Her spine straightened.“Can you hear me?”
Andrian nodded. His brows lifted, the corners of his mouth kicking up, his eyes twinkling with a bit of awe.
Mariah swallowed. She’d only ever been able to do that—speak through her mind—when talking to the gods as dragons or when shewasa dragon. Never in her true body.
“This is new,”she pushed to Andrian.
“You never cease to surprise me,nio,”he said back, and she couldn’t help her jolt of surprise.“So, I take it that it worked?”
As if in answer, her magic roiled through her, that beast in her chest shaking out her wings. There was a lot to process and more questions she needed answering, but for now…
For now, she gave Andrian a feral grin. And set the beast free.
It didn’t hurt as much as it had the first time. She pushed to her feet, magic already swirling around her, limbs already shifting and stretching. With a great leap, she jumped into the air, silver-gold light flashing off the mountains.
The wind caught the underside of her sensitive, leathery wings, her serpentine neck winding toward the sky. Her vision sharpened, shifted, expanding to see colors she never could’ve imagined. Energy and might pulsed through her body, down into her powerful legs, deadly talons grappling with the sky as she climbed into the air.
It was a stark difference to the last time she’d shifted. She was confused still, and somewhat terrified, but she was no longer driven by broken rage. This was not a state of survival, but one of exploration. A willful growth into a part of herself that she’d thought for a moment would be lost for good.
Revelry in her heart, Mariah opened her maw androared. Heat built in her chest, the taste of magic stinging her tongue.
The beast in her took over, ancient instincts sweeping through as dragonfire spilled into air.
“Welcome back to us, Mariah,”a deep voice rumbled. Mariah tilted her head, sweeping the sky.
She yelped when an indigo shape blurred up from beneath her, his wings tucked. Callamus snapped them out at the last moment, righting himself, galaxy eyes shining.“This form suits you. I’m glad to finally see you don it.”
Mariah growled, banking after him.“I didn’t think it was possible to miss.”
“A part of you belongs to this. It is natural to miss it.”Callamus swung his massive head to her.“Did you find the answers you were looking for?”
The fire in Mariah’s chest quelled. Memories from thestaorflashed through her mind. Did she get her questions answered? Or was she left wondering more about what she was than before?
And why, through all of it, had her magic finally awoken?
“I’m not sure,”she answered, the only honest response she could find.
Her and Callamus flew beside each other, wings beating the air, soaring high over the Everheim Mountains. Mariah knew it was cold, but she felt none of it; only the sun warming her scales, the wind folding under her wings, the beating magic deep in her chest.
She scanned the ground far below. The magic of this form sharpened her vision. She could make out the winding road through the mountains, the hidden pool beneath the rise. The three figures standing on its banks, eyes turned skyward.
Something tugged in her chest. Something that led to the black-haired man wearing a proud, uninhibited smile on his face.
